DAVAO CITY — Oil companies sounded of another round of fuel increase on Tuesday, March 8, this is the 10th straight weekly hike as Russia and Ukraine are at war.
Shell Philippines announced on Saturday announced to what they call “Super Bigtime” oil price hike with Gasoline increase at P3,60 to P3.80 per liter increase; Diesel at P5.30 to 5.50 per liter and Kerosene at P4.00 to P4.10 per liter.
While Petron Corporation and other companies have yet to announce their new price as of Monday morning.
Citing oil trading monitoring in the past five days, based on the Mean of Platts Singapore, an oil industry source told GMA News Online that the price per liter of diesel may increase by P5.30 to P5.50.
The local oil industry uses Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the daily average of all trading transactions between buyers and sellers of petroleum products as assessed and summarized by Standard and Poor’s Platts.
On the other hand, Unioil Petroleum Philippines’ price forecast for March 8 to 14 trading week showed that diesel may climb by P4 per liter and gasoline may rise by P3 per liter.
Global benchmark Brent crude price soared to over $119 per barrel as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent jitters across oil markets.
Often, fuel companies announce price changes every Monday and implement the adjustments on Tuesday.
How will this affect the people?
The ongoing war affects millions of people around the globe as the warring countries account to fuel supply and food supplies.
Moscow is the EU’s biggest supplier of oil and natural gas. Europe could survive if Russia shut off the supply, but it wouldn’t be cheap or easy.
The war in Ukraine Ukraine has had economic and human costs across the globe, especially when it comes to energy.
In the United States, gas prices have snowballed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Experts are worried that food prices could spike after already “sharply” rising last year. And Moody’s is warning that global supply chains, already hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic, could be further thrown into chaos. Stocks around the world fell on Friday, with Europe taking a particularly rough beating.
The conflict is also a pocketbook issue that could determine whether families can put food on the table. In Ukraine alone, three to five million people are going to need food support immediately, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley said.
Russia and Ukraine are also some of the world’s leading producers of wheat. Together, they account for 23% of all global exports, according to S&P Global.
“Fears of conflict hanging over two of the world’s major suppliers are clearly going to have some impact on prices when there is already a sense of shortage,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council of Foreign Affairs.
Local economy
For Joseph Dagaas, a jitney driver, the unstoppable oil price increase impacted his family as the government has yet to increase the fare rate, it remains at P9.00 for the first five kilometers, same fare but higher fuel cost.
“Wala na mi ganansya, sa gasolina pa lang nga itubil, lugi na mi, wala na mi madala nga bugas sa among balay (We do not earn anymore, our fuel consumption is alreay a loss, we cannot bring rice for our families).
Dagaas said the government must look at the welfare of those in the transport sector who suffers the impact of the war.
For taxicab driver Cristino Pabro, the increase is anti-people and anti-poor “While they are imposing price increase we are helpless, how can we respond? no way but accept the truth, the poor get poorer the rich get richer because they have savings while we are at hand to mouth existence,” he said in vernacular.
Dagaas and Pabro said the government should intervene provide fuel subsidies to drivers like what happened during the early months of the pandemic.
The drivers and their families have yet to recover from the economic loss due to the pandemic and they view the upcoming fuel price increase as anti-people.
Fare hike
With this, the Liga ng Transportastyon at Operators sa Pilipinas is asking the government to allow them to increase the fare from the current P9.00 for the first five (5) kilometers to P15.
LTOP national president Orlando Marquez apologized to the riding public about their plan, but says the drivers and operators are affected and they earn nothing for the day’s trip.
Marquez said the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) dumped their petition earlier which sought to increase up to P12.
Experts said energy prices will be a key factor to watch as events unfold, warning of potential adverse impact on economic growth from higher commodity prices, at a time when the world is still recovering from the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
“Against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty, we think now is a time for investors to be more selective, consider portfolio hedging, and seek longer-term opportunity,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said.
